A U.S. stealth drone that crashed in Iran last week was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission which involved both the intelligence community and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, two U.S. officials confirmed to CNN Tuesday.

A senior U.S. official with direct access to the assessment about what happened to the drone said it was tasked to fly over western Afghanistan and look for insurgent activity, with no directive to either fly into Iran or spy on Iran from Afghan airspace.

A U.S. satellite quickly pinpointed the downed drone, which apparently sustained significant damage, the senior official said.
"The Iranians have a pile of rubble and are trying to figure what they have and what to do with it," the senior U.S. official said. The drone crashed solely because its guidance system failed, the official said.

Officials confirmed to CNN it was an RQ-170 drone that was lost.

Another U.S. official confirmed that when the drone crashed, the United States briefly considered all potential options for retrieving the aircraft or bombing the wreckage, but those ideas were quickly discarded as impractical.

The officials have direct knowledge of the events, but spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence matters. CIA officials have declined to comment.

Indications of the intelligence community's involvement in the drone incident emerged over the weekend, when NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan issued a statement saying, "The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to which the Iranians are referring may be a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."

Several coalition officials said at the time they had no direct knowledge of the incident and they were essentially ordered to put out this statement. It's significant that the statement only says "operators" of the UAV, without saying which part of the military or U.S. government might have been operating it, one coalition official said.

U.S. officials are discounting the Iranian claim that they shot the drone down. The United States continues to say the crew of the UAV lost flight control and the drone then entered Iranian airspace.

American officials over the years have been adamant that U.S. assets do not fly over Iranian air space.

The RQ-170 Sentinel is a stealth drone developed by Lockheed Martin for the Air Force to help provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Iranian media reported that the RQ-170 was slightly damaged and in the hands of Iranian forces.

"Armed forces with a dominant control over the country's borders managed to identify and down the invading plane," reported Iran's official news agency, the Islamic Republic News Agency.

An unnamed Iranian military official called it a "clear example of aggression" and added that Iran is "fully ready to counter any aggression," the report said.

In July, Iran's military made a similar claim, saying it downed a U.S. "spy drone" flying near its Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province. But Iran backtracked on the statement a few days later, saying the incident was actually part of a training exercise.

soundoff(434 Responses)

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I seriously hope our country is able to withdraw from Afghanistan soon. Our economy appears to be rebounding, people are going back to work, we have forced the politicians in this country to start looking at the problems we care about and that they should have cared about all along, now it's time to bring our soldiers home, get the financial house back in order, and hopefully find a way to be a little less involved in that part of the world. I can't wait for the day we put electric motors in every car and power ourselves with renewable energy like solar etc. let the rest of the world squabble over the middle east and it's oil. These barbaric societies don't deserve to exist and once we stop paying them for Oil... they will crumble and finally the world will be rid of that wasteland known as the middle east and it's people that pray for death and destruction. Iraqis... Iranians... Afghanis, all of these people... not all but many are just flat out EVIL!

Obama is begging to Iranians for lost drone.
America is the root of all terror. America has invaded sixty countries since world war 2. America invaded Iraq in 2003 and killed 1,000,000+ innocent Iraqi people and displaced 5,000,000+ Iraqi.
In 1953 America overthrow Iran's democratic government and installed dictator.
Now America is a failed state with huge debt. America's public debt will be 23 trillion by 2015.

Jannai – you're an idiot. Just want to make that part clear. Dumb as they come. Your numbers of casualties, are absolutely incorrect, I was in Iraq, If 1,000,000 iraqis were killed, they'd be lying everywhere blanketing that country, we worked with Iraqis to stabalize their country, the majority of Iraqis that died in Iraq during the war, died because of terrorists from outside of their country, like IRANIAN BACKED TERRORISTS... you and the scum like you support murderers, people that come into a village... tell everyone there to do what they say or they'll cut their heads off... you and your kind have no leg to stand on... hopefully someday soon Iran will step over that line and will light up Tehran so bad it won't stop glowing for a thousand years... you friggin animal.

Exploiting an unencrypted guidance signal of a UAV today would not be much different than the exploitation of cold war Soviet ground to air control signals utilized to give commands to aircraft during the 80's. This precluded voice comms between the pilot and the ground controller, while all commands were sent directly to the aircraft for execution. Same principal, you just remove the pilot from the equation. If we could do it in the 80's, who's to say that it couldn't be done to us today!

It has been known for awhile now that the signal that controls the drones are not secured or encrypted. (yes, that is scary, stupid, and insane)
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/12/not-just-drones-militants-can-snoop-on-most-us-warplanes/

This does not mean that someone can simply send a signal to it and take control of it, because there is no way to know how it works, but I'm sure anyone with 1/2 a brain could tap this unencrypted control signal, and after awhile of analysis discern some basic command patterns, and eventually hijack one when the time and opportunity is right.

It probably wasn't an Iranian who captured it, it was probably a Chinese agent, because that is where the drone is headed next.

The most dangerous sort of people are the ones who have a little bit more knowledge than the average person (who has better things on their mind), but insufficient knowledge or intelligence to comprehend the who truth. These people fill in the blanks in their understanding with conspiracy theories, religion, or whatever else they want to believe.

First of all, I don't think you understand your own reference. The Wired article is about potential interception of videos beamed down from the UAVs to soldiers in the field, not to command and control of the actual plane. Well, there goes the first 90% of your ridiculous post.

Second of all, a country like China has more to lose by posting agents in Iran to intercept US drones than it has anything to gain. After all, most of the parts in the drone are likely made in China anyway! Your far fetched speculation is reminiscent of some yahoo relic who is missing the Cold War jargon and conspiracy theory days. China's greatest weapon and mechanism of defence is its economy, not bombs! They purposefully bought and financed our debt so that if we ever attack them, then we are shooting ourselves too. By the same token, if they ever attack us, they are shooting their biggest investment. The Soviet Union on the other hand, never invested in the U.S. It's no wonder the U.S. economy is failing: Because we have a bunch of dimwits who don't understand the true dangers and opportunities confronting our country, and are electing presidents and other government officials who reflect these same dimwitted theories. If you ask me, only people with at least a bachelor's degree who have passed a test about the basic issues facing our nation should have the right to vote. Otherwise, we are just voting based upon hype, including by people like you who go around spreading misinformation to the disservice of our country. Our biggest threat? That's our own failure to innovate and take advantage of growing markets such as China by alienating them instead of selling to their billion or so people.

Craig your beliefs and philosophy is the very reason the founding fathers rejected any type of monarchy when the US and the Constitution were formed. Strictly for the people, and by the people, that all US citizens regardless of class or social standing would have a vote and say in government and not just a favored few rich.

December 9, 2011 at 5:59 pm |

Farrell

Craig,

Hype is what we have in this country instead of a balanced, independent, and objective news media. Editors are completely beholden to their corporate masters. To understand Iran and why it is opposed to the U.S. involves going back to 1953 when the democratically elected President of Iran, who wanted to nationalize the country's oil wealth instead of seeing it dissolve into foreign pockets, was overthrown by U.S./British intelligence services. The pretext was that he had communist sypathies, which was absolutely false. In fact, Mossadegh thought the U.S. Constitution was one of the greatest documents ever produced.

Anyone ever read 'Manufacturing Consent'? When is the last time North Korea's nuclear program was discussed in the mainstream media? Pyongyang has actually detonated a nuclear device and has succesfullly tested missiles in <1000 km range. Why Iran, why now? Those are the questions people should be asking.

December 12, 2011 at 4:51 pm |

mike

the thing the iranian s are showing is a model of a stealth drone. the model is made from foam, now i have seen the real one and if you look at the back it s not as thick or compared to the real one the shape they show wont contol air flow. if u really look at what there showing it s clear they looked at blueprints and old video and tried to make a copy. if they had the real one banged up or even if they really could hack into them those guys don t have enoughf descresion not to show the real one if they had it, like i said a fake, a deacent one, but if they had thereal one . our gov would trak it and drop a bomb on it so there was no evidence, in that case they would show wreckage, so all that said the drone the iranians show is a half as copy without the details anyone who has seen the real one knows..

This story has more lies than miles to the moon; and from all sides. Sometimes, I wonder just what the hell my tax dollars are being used to do. Nobody in the CIA EVER comes clean and so therefore they lie.
And the Iranians, all blustering out their chests as if they had a clue or could do anything about it. What a farce they are and everybody knows it but them. The Iranian barbarians are like cavemen who found a rod and reel. Maybe those 'short skirts that cause earthquakes" got lowered below the knees.
At any rate, this cluster-YouKnowWhat, is as monkey's intercoursing a football. Anytime the CIA is invloved I think "billions wasted" and anytime the Iranians are invloved I think "next nuclear weapon dropped spot". When both are invloved I think "Vodka Collins time" and I don't even drink.

Funny how the "downed drone" they were showing on the news ALL DAY TODAY was the tail section from the stealth helecopter...get it right, media cannot wait to put out "information" right, wrong, rumored, as long as it gets out "first" they make the dollar...No matter how many people it kills or hurts. Wierd how currency, no matter from what country is worth more than blood. From human trafficking, creating info to perusade world markets, money rules all. Can you eat it and it provide actual nurishment for your body???nope. It clouds the minds of world leaders and we are those who are stepped on for it. Wake up world, we are all in it together, like it or not, no matter your religion as long as you believe there is some kind of hope. If not, let things keep going the way they are...that'll suck.

First, don't our drones have some sort of self-destruct mechanism that could have been employed?

Second, if it "crashed" or was "taken down", wouldn't it have severe and noticeable damage?

Third, if the downed drone contains so much sensitive information, and if the U.S. knew the location of the lost drone almost immediately, why wouldn't we have sent in a second drone ASAP to blow the captured drone to smithereens and thus destroy all sensitive information?

I know that I shouldn't believe that they (iran) doesn't know what to do with the downed drone, but here is my take.
I love (sarcasticly) how the liberal us media takes an incident like this and just goes all into it with "expert opinions", sharing ideas and information that tell me: "hey, if iran didn't know what they were going to do with it, thanks to you, liberal media, now they have some ideas". Like the guy stating, "oh, they shouldn't try to build their own copy, just
farm out the work, and then get one from those that reverse engineered it". Thanks, Mr. Amerian, like they really need
more help in trying to hurt the great US of A. ... Just my opinion.

I love how people on here know EXACTLY what happened with this drone. In fact these people have no clue. Freedom of speech should be banned for the stupid. Now get back to your reality tv shows everyone.

The US government is totally lying about what happened. This plane was on a mission to spy on the Iranian Nuclear program and was shot down. The damage done by the impact of whatever hit it was so great that the detonate circuit failed. Now whatever is left of this plane is in the hands of Chinese scientist who are reverse engineering it as we speak.

Just about a month ago there was a story about how they found a virus or a Trojan in some software that was loaded into one of our drones. isn't it possible that by using this software the Iranians or someone else helping them actually took control of this drone and actually landed it keeping ALL of the stealth technology as well as other technology intact? I wonder why no one has put forth this distinct although remote possibility? I would also like to know the possible consequences of this having happened. I have yet to hear from one government official about this mainly because I have yet to hear one Journalist ask the question. If this is the case This is a very Big deal and we need to address the possibility as soon as possible instead of sticking our heads in the sand. Could one of our drones be taken over and used against us this way? If the answer is NO then How can you be so sure. I mean I am sure that if asked if a virus or Trojan could get into the software loaded into the drones before it actually happened then the answer would have been NO WAY but Now it has already happened and if so then how can you say the other could not happen

These airvraft definitely fly pre-programmed missions, but they can be updated real-time. This bird did not 'stray' over Iran and its mission was likely a SIGINT/ELINT set of tasks (i.e., to listen in and intercept electronic signals from their radars, missile testing or nuclear program). It would certainly be programmed to fly home if it lost contact with the statellite or relay to ground station. It most likely had a catastrophic failure or even could have been shot down if it was daylight at the time. There may not be much left of it if it crashed from a high altitude.

Do you mean to tell me that with all of our technology that we did not build in a device that would totaly incinerate the plane if another country took possesion? And I don't mean blow it up into a lot of little peices but actually burn it to a pulp. How stupid are we............ a first grader would tell you to burn it up if it got into the wriong hands!!!! It is one thing to have tecnical difficulties with any mechanical device, but in this case we don't build in a safe guard..... what is shutting down the computers when the whole plane is a gold mine. We are one stupid country be.

If the drone no longer responds to remote control, it would be rather tricky to activate the 'incinerate' switch, wouldn't it? So if you no longer have remote communication, that would mean a built in kill swith that activates when? Maybe you could enigneer it to activate on impact with the ground (which will already cause significant damage ), but then what if it lands hard or encounters some other non-routine jarring while airborne? Also, some metals and composites don't burn so well.

Farrell
If the drone no longer responds to remote control, it would be rather tricky to activate the ‘incinerate’ switch, wouldn’t it? So if you no longer have remote communication, that would mean a built in kill swith that activates when? Maybe you could enigneer it to activate on impact with the ground (which will already cause significant damage ),

The device would activated within a specified time or instantly at the moment communications are lost with base contact and it is called an auto destruct. The SR71 Blackbird carried a similar destruct device. If a code wasn't keyed during flight at a specified range the plane would auto destruct. It was to prevent the plane from falling into enemy hands.

December 7, 2011 at 5:46 pm |

drtom1957

Every launch rocket made has a detonate circuit that activates if the rocket loses contact with the controllers. The US government is totally lying about what happened. This plane was on a mission to spy on the Iranian Nuclear program and was shot down. The damage done by the impact of whatever hit it was so great that the detonate circuit failed. Now whatever is left of this plane is in the hands of Chinese scientist who are reverse engineering it as we speak.

December 7, 2011 at 11:42 pm |

Farrell

Roy

The SR71 was a manned reconnaisance aircraft. And you're saying that there was a self-destruct mechanism for any instance where it was out of contact? Yikes! Would have sucked to be on of those pilots.

December 8, 2011 at 2:20 pm |

Roy

Yes the SR71 was a manned reconnaissance aircraft. Those pilots authorized to fly would have to have by necessity been provided with the code. It was to prevent anyone from stealing the SR71, I choose to think the SR71 could have also been destroyed from the ground in case anyone tried to fly it out of it's authorized airspace. And agreed all of this is pure speculation on my part.

December 8, 2011 at 3:49 pm |

gary

Should have had a self destruct at a certain altitude. Without the signal from it's base it goes "poof".

December 8, 2011 at 6:44 pm |

Roy

I repeat, the fucking CIA meant for the God Damned Iranians to get it or they would not have gotten it. Fucking bastards in the CIA doesn't willingly give away anything unless they get in return at least 10 times what the cost of it was.

December 8, 2011 at 6:59 pm |

EatYouAlive

Or not. Fucking psycho.

December 8, 2011 at 7:31 pm |

CJA

How do you know this did not happen. You don't need to destroy the entire plane only a few very small parts. You also don't need radio contact to send the destruct signal, there could be impact sensors that would trigger it if the plane hit the ground hard. MUCH safer then having a big bomb on board, just a few very tiny ones are enough

When USA shot down an Iran-Air airplane they initially said that it was a F14 fighter plane, and then after a few days (after Iran produced videos of the incidents) the Americans admitted that it was a civilian airplane that was mistaken for a fighter airplane! But later they gave the medal of honours to the guy who killed 300 Iranian civilians!
Judging by this backdrop I cannot believe anything the Americans say.

Let me get this straight, you actually think the US gave the pilot that accidentally shot down an Iranian civilian airliner killing 300 innocent people the MEDAL OF HONOR for the incident? Somebody's been drinking the kool-aid...

Not true. It was one crazy Chinese general at their National Defense University – someone who is not even a combatant commander.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOwTpP8Kp78&w=640&h=360]

You need to get your facts right on that front, however you are correct that CNN is a worthless, peice of crap of a newsource. Nancy Grace about sums up their relevance as a force to be taken seriously!

December 7, 2011 at 5:39 pm |

rick

still listening to Howard stern for your news , i see.

December 8, 2011 at 10:16 am |

rick

the us gov can only do this to aliens from other planets. get your facts straight!

I am so happy that Iran has gotten ahold of really top of the line U.S. electronic spy apparatus. Now, they will be able to use it and duplicate it to spy back on U.S. forces and Israel to head off any offensive attack on their country or get their thousands of missiles of the ground quickly to make anyone who tries pay a horrible, but justified price for aggression. Furthermore, since Israel has nukes which the U.S. and Europe pretend don't exist and since Pakistan and India were allowed to get nukes with no real opposition form the U.S., they can now feel confident in proceeding to build nuclear missiles and artillery rounds for quick deploymewnt in the next 12-18 months in self-defense. Alsao, they will certainly be able to trade the drone technology to China and / or Russia and / or Pakistan to speed their acquisition of nuke tech and sophisticated missles and anti-missile systems. So nice of us to screw up (as we always ultimately do) and help remove our ability to start another offensive war in that part of the worls! Yes!!!!

Climp
He is taking "reality pills"; and you need some before you get to puberty! For your information F-35 (the most expensive fighter airplane) is built on the same technology that RQ170 is built on.
Now F-35 is worthless!

December 6, 2011 at 11:02 pm |

Mike84

Shoot i want what Kiumars Irani's on he been going on a fun crazy trip tonight

December 7, 2011 at 3:35 am |

rick

if i had your e mail address i could send you proof positive that Israel and the US military are controlled by aliens from the planet Keppler 22b. [note "Keppler" is a jewish name]. by the way, dont let a little dementia slow you down.

You can't just copy an thing like this from a pile of wreckage. First off what is the critical part is the software and the electronics and you don't just get much to copy from a wreck. Try this as an experiment. Drop your computer from a tall building then set it on fire. Next try and recreate that video game your were playing from only the information you can get from the smoking rubble pile. It would be easier to start from scratch.

Hey just think. When the GOP regain power, they will start a war with Iran (totally unfunded of course). Then they will draft all the poor people to fight/die in the war and give "no bid" contracts to the rich people. Killing two birds with one stone. Then we can use Iran's oil to pay for the war. And when the war is over, Iran will sell us cheap oil!! Just like in Iraq!!!.............Oh wait........Never mind.

Absolutely not clueless. It already happened in Iraq. jaka$$ fits you well.

December 7, 2011 at 9:57 am |

Ryan

Correction, Iran has no oil. This is the U.S. policing the world again. How are we going to pay for this. Have our Federal Reserve print more money to pay for the war. Iran doesn't lose, we lose when our dollar is worth less.

Honestly, I don't buy the Government’s explanation one bit. I pretty sure the Predators are programmed to fly home course if signal is lost. So I'm pretty sure this drone, which was way more advanced, had something similar. It didn’t just wander into Iranian airspace, it was either already there or tracking a preprogrammed flight plan.

By principle you don’t need a big expensive stealth drone for Afghanistan anyhow, what are you worried about, the big bad Taliban air defense network?

I hate to see more of our advanced technology getting in the hands of our enemies. But I guess how else would our defense industry get billions of dollars in R&D funding unless we had sufficient sustained probable cause to spend that money to stay ahead of our potential advisories capability wise? Why not help them along a little bit... it only puts our troops at risk.

You watch too many Sci-Fi movies; the fact is that these expensive gadgets are not that cleaver! Everybody says what they should be doing but they have no clue of the reality and operational conditions! The safety bag of your car is supposed to inflate and save your life in the event of an accident but lots of drivers die everyday because they rely on it too much! When was the last time you tested your car’s safety bag?

December 6, 2011 at 11:24 pm |

Roy

You watch too many Sci-Fi movies; the fact is that these expensive gadgets are not that cleaver! Everybody says what they should be doing but they have no clue of the reality and operational conditions!

Apparently you don't watch enough of them, or really don't believe what Science, the CIA, the FBI and the Government really is capable of.

December 6, 2011 at 11:38 pm |

Mike84

Kiumars Irani have you tested yours lately? if not might want to go give it a shot if it works come back and tell us. i concur with the last reply as well if you don't think the US gov got some crazy tech you living in a fantasy world I would guess that this drone was not our best or close to it. you don't hear about the good stuff crashing thats where you find a crater

December 7, 2011 at 3:39 am |

charms

I'm shocked that Iran shot down the most advanced stealth drone we have. Very surprised! After all that huge defense budget?

What makes you think this is our most advanced?
from wikipedia: The design lacks several elements common to stealth engineering, namely notched landing gear doors and sharp leading edges. It has a curved wing planform, and the exhaust is not shielded by the wing.[10] Aviation Week postulates that these elements suggest the designers have avoided 'highly sensitive technologies' due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss inherent with a single engine design and a desire to avoid the risk of compromising leading edge technology.

OMG.. wikipedia must be referring to a B-16 stealth bomber..not a effin drone

December 6, 2011 at 9:37 pm |

Jack Sparrow

Easily the best commentary when it comes to anything like this. Much more detailed than what you will find here or other aviation/defense outlets. This guy got the stealth blackhawk story before anyone else. Check it out, scroll down there was a post yesterday on this too.

This is why myself and others don’t believe that the public needs to hear this type of information. The common person will not be able to make the proper conclusion and only desensitizes the public.

Are you saying non-soldier citizens are idiots???

Sure reads that way, now don't it LOL.

December 6, 2011 at 5:57 pm |

stupiddecision

What an idiot design. This thing should be equipped with self-destruct just in case of this kind of event. The entire plan should have been exploded when the operator lost control. We can a 5 mil drone, but we can't afford self-destruct feature???? What a stupid design and stupid cost saving decision.

Remember that the active tech being used on battle fields are at least a decade old. The true high tech state of the art drones are above top secret and thus the drone that Iran has pieces of is old US military surplus. Do any of you believe that the USA would even remotely risk advanced tech getting in the hands of Iran, china , and Russia? Of course not! These drones are looking for people and camps along the boarders. We don’t need ultra high tech for that! Our spy satellites do the heavy work and these drones look for people and camps.

What you say makes a lot of sense, Admiral. The only thing that I am a bit puzzled by is your lumping Iran with China and Russia. China and Russia already have pretty advanced tech–though, no doubt, they could learn a thing or two from the U.S. as well. The opposite issue some have suggested applies to Iran: They wouldn't necessarily know what to do with such advanced tech if it fell in their laps. Would you agree with any of that?

December 7, 2011 at 1:50 am |

Mark

So, you've had a look at the specifications of the RQ-170, the most advanced intelligence drone we are known to have? Could you send me the schematics (specifications) on it so that I may see the design flaw you claim to be true? Ah hell, the Iranians already got the plane, so you posting it right here on the CNN blog shouldn't bother anybody. *rolls eyes*

Should I ask how you expected to initiate a self-destruct sequence on an UNMANNED Aerial Vehicle, when there are no comms to control it to begin with? Perhaps some magical transmitter that can barrel through whatever was causing the disconnect to begin with? Gee, if we had that, then we probably would have been able to steer the plane proper to begin with.

Should I ask how you expected to initiate a self-destruct sequence on an UNMANNED Aerial Vehicle, when there are no comms to control it to begin with? Perhaps some magical transmitter that can barrel through whatever was causing the disconnect to begin with? Gee, if we had that, then we probably would have been able to steer the plane proper to begin with.

Just as cell phones have to be in constant contact with towers to operate, an auto destruct would have to remain in constant contact with the base to prevent it from activating.

December 6, 2011 at 4:26 pm |

Mark

Roy, that's a nice idea, but counter-productive if there is a temporary loss in comms which could reestablish itself before being out of "range". Additionally, you'd have to have a payload that would weigh down the UAV, make it more cumbersome and costly to operate, and add additional safety requirements that would prevent accidental detonation from a variety of areas. Trust me, it's hard enough to get electronics to function properly. Imagine adding time bomb technology to it.

Well now Mark that's a nice thought and I bet you could just charm a cow right out of her calf with them, but unless you have inside information on the whole affair that your not letting the rest of us in on, then I might as well be trusting a spitting cobra in the wild not to spit in my face and my speculation is as good as yours or any of the rest of commenters.

December 6, 2011 at 4:44 pm |

Mark

No, I have no inside information. Just playing devil's advocate using a modest background.

December 6, 2011 at 5:03 pm |

svann

From wikipedia: The design lacks several elements common to stealth engineering, namely notched landing gear doors and sharp leading edges. It has a curved wing planform, and the exhaust is not shielded by the wing.[10] Aviation Week postulates that these elements suggest the designers have avoided 'highly sensitive technologies' due to the near certainty of eventual operational loss inherent with a single engine design and a desire to avoid the risk of compromising leading edge technology.

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CNN's Security Clearance examines national and global security, terrorism and intelligence, as well as the economic, military, political and diplomatic effects of it around the globe, with contributions from CNN's national security team in Washington and CNN journalists around the world.